ahh. lake days, lazy days, camping, and bike rides is what summer looks like for us. michael works 8-5 during the week (except summer hours allow him to get off at 2:30 on fridays!) so we make the most of our weekends and evenings.

we went to uncle bill's lake house a few days ago. the ozarks really is a beautiful place and i take it for granted so often. i used to think we needed to live somewhere else to adventure like we wanted to. you know that saying "grow where you are planted" ...yeah, we're trying to do just that. we want to show elle the beauty around us. she got so excited watching the boats go by as she sat on her towel while eating her popcorn (a favorite snack). we went for pizza after swimming a while and then made the drive back to springfield. it didn't take ellie long to nod off to sleep as we listened to the lumineers and drove on the hilly, country roads. i tried to take in all the moments of the day. michael and i talked about some upcoming trips we want to make and things we want to do. he stopped at a little farm to get some fresh peaches and blueberries. they were the best. days like that friday afternoon are my favorite kind of days.

i have to admit, keeping up with this space hasn't been a top priority (you might have noticed.) we enjoyed our spring and now welcome summer! ellie is a summer baby....meaning she'll be two too soon. i've been trying to organize and print photos and realized i really miss having this journal to look back on. so, it's time to play catch up.

let's start with mother's day:

yes, i'm very behind. i got lots of flowers for the yard and after church we went for a little stroll in the japanese gardens.